215 Sqdn, Independent Air Force, Xaffevillers

[Archer]

I last posted this two years ago ... but got nowhere ...

Situation

83051 AM3 Andrew Beattie Emslie, RAF, 215 Sqdn, Independent Air Force, Xaffevillers, was admitted to No. 8 Canadian Stationary Hospital with gunshot wounds to the head, chest and left arm on 22 August 1918.

He nearly died.

He told his daughter many years later that he was shot down, the pilot killed. He hated the Air Force. Never wore his medals.

Problem

215 Squadron was a heavy bomber unit armed with Handley Page 0/400 bombers. It didn't lose a plane on the night of 21/22 August 1918.

The RAF museum could find no record of Emslie's wounding.

But he WAS wounded. His personal record confirms it. He was badly hurt, discharged unfit for further service on 17 January 1919 and awarded the King's Silver War Badge for the disabled. And his grateful country gave him a pension of 27 shillings and six pence a week for 52 weeks!!

Soon afterwards he emigrated to South Africa.

Question

So who shot him, and why?

William

[eltoro1960]

Don't know if this helps I came across an interview with the late Ray Shillinglaw and he speaks of a large raid, inovolving his squadron and 215 Squadron, he seems a wee bit unsure of the date, swithering between August and September..here is the passage

Shillinglaw has just been speaking of his friend from nearby 215 squadron,Lt Hugh B Monaghan...

RS: ...phone goes...the CO: "You're not flying tonight then Shillinglaw?" I said "no sir" so he said "Well, take charge of the aerodrome on the control tower."

Me: Roughly what date would that have been?

RS: August... no September. So, I had to go across to the control tower... and we'd got two Handley Page squadrons and our own Fe2bs and what not, about forty or fifty planes on the aerodrome. So, I had to flash them off and flash them in, and all this and the other, and we lost six machines that night.100 squadron lost one at Frankfurt- Johnson, Chainey and Pitman. 215 squadron lost several and the other squadron lost one or two. Included in this 215 squadron was my friend Monaghan. I waited up for an hour after sunrise hoping they'd come back, but they never did. He was shot down.

Me: So what happenned to him?

RS: Well, he was captured and put in a prison camp in Poland and eventually got back to England when the war finished, but I went to stay with him several times outside Toronto where he lived. Yes, here's an article by me...(produces 'Cross and Cockade' magazine) They wrote to me, those people, and asked me if I'd give them an experience. There's quite an interesting book here by this fellow Hugh Monaghan. (Picks up book entitled 'The Big Bombers of World War One') There's a photograph of me in there.

It seems a big action with plenty casualties..worth a look maybe

[Dolphin]

John

The raid of which Mr Shillingaw spoke was on the night of 16/17 September 1918, when Nos 100, 115 and 215 Sqns, Independent Force, RAF bombed targets in support of the St Mihiel offensive.

Seven Handley-Page O/400s were lost: five from No 215 Sqn anbd one each from Nos 100 and 115 Sqns.

Lt H B Monaghan was flying HP O/400 D4566 of No 215 Sqn, with 2Lt G W Mitchell and Lt H E Hyde as crew, when it was hit by flak over Cologne. The crew were all made Prisoners of War.

I hope that this helps - but it doesn't clear up the mystery of AMIII Emslie's wound.

Gareth

[Archer]

Thank you John and Gareth

I have been away [in France!!] which explains my long silence.

The mystery of AMIII Emslie's wound is one of the great mysteries of the war, it seems.

William